The invention pertains to a starting device for an internal combustion engine, and more especially to a starting device for an engine adapted for driving a portable motorized chain saw. The device is of the type having a rope pulley which rotates as a wound-up rope is pulled off and is rotatably arranged on a stationary bearing axle, to which it is secured by a retention spring which engages the bearing axle with the ends of its legs, whereby the frictional connection which prevails between the retention spring and the bearing axle is used to radially outwardly swivel a pawl around an axis which is parallel to the bearing axis when the rope pulley is rotated in the starting direction. The pawl is supported on the rope pulley and engages it with the inner teeth of a recessed coupling, which is connected with the crankshaft of the internal combustion engine and which is coaxial to the bearing axle.
In a known starting device of this type, two pawls are provided which are arranged diametrically to the bearing axle. With cams arranged eccentrically to their swivel axes, the pawls engage in a dog plate, which is configured as a double arm lever and which is connected with the retention spring in form-locking relation. In other known starting devices, the cams which are provided for swivelling the pawl are arranged approximately in the middle between the end of the pawl and the swivel axis of the pawl, and engage in slits, which, in one of the known embodiments, are provided in the longitudinal direction of the dog plate, or are configured obliquely to its longitudinal direction. Because of the large number of components used in the known starting devices, there is a relatively large amount of play of these components in the assembled condition because of the unavoidable production tolerances. The consequence is a considerable wear of these components, necessitating an extensive inventory of spare parts.